K.Mandla's blog of Linux experiences

Yet another Jaunty beta screenshot

Edit: Unfortunately, the images originally included in this post are gone, because of hosting problems in late 2009. My apologies.

Since everyone else has been throwing out Jaunty guides, Jaunty screenshot tours and Jaunty gossip columns, I figured one more screenshot couldn’t hurt.

(Edit: That is not the default desktop.) I am nonplussed by Gnome Ubuntu on the whole, so I apologize if my opinion doesn’t bubble over like some I have seen elsewhere. It sets up easy on this machine, but that has been the case since Edgy really. Wireless networking is painless, but the last time I had a wireless networking issue was probably around 7.04. Same for proprietary video drivers; after Gutsy, I stopped worrying about *buntu’s ability to find and install the driver for my card.

I will say that it seems to start up and shut down faster. But I also notice the Windows-esque gimmick of showing the cursor and playing the startup sound long before the desktop elements ever appear. Tsk, tsk. :|

All in all I give it the same endorsement I give to any other Gnome Ubuntu beta release, which is to say, “Use it if you prefer it.” I’m more interested in Kubuntu really, because I prefer KDE over Gnome if I’m forced to suffer through a heavyweight desktop. Maybe I’ll download that next.

P.S.: As always, this is beta software and prone to breakage, etc., etc. If you have to ask if it’s stable enough to install, you shouldn’t install it.

Ubuntu’s always done that cursor/start sound thing on this machine. Maybe Jaunty will be even worse. If I can be bothered to try it.

Is that the default look there? It really is very brown this time, isn’t it? Although I must say I quite like the desktop background. I’ve never been a fan of those weird expressionist representations of the codename animals they had in the last few releases.

X.org (and X11 before it) have shown the cursor before the window manager/desktop environment was loaded for as long as I can remember, which is about nine years.

Not that it matters much for me. I’ve got my system to automatically log my account in, then instantly lock the screen as everything loads in the background. It’s very nice to be able just type in a password and have the illusion that Gnome loaded instantly.

I’ve been running KDE 4.2 from the PPA repository on Intrepid. I heartily recommend it. You’ll like it in 9.04. It’s ready for nontechnical users who aren’t used to Windows. Ones who are, 4.3 should be more comprehensible to them. (IME, KDE4 so far just confuses Windows XP users even as they think it’s really pretty.)